Trouble
by galangalang2
Summary: A month after Damon and Bonnie's death, Elena and Tyler go on a road trip. Elena in a struggle between forgetting Damon and accepting his death, she searches for ways to cope. Tyler is back to his old life. It's like he can start again. Single and free from the chains of society, he ventures out to start fresh and leave his troubling past behind with his hybrid nature.
1. Chapter 1

Troubled

A month after Damon and Bonnie's disappearance, the sheriff of Mystic Falls decides to let the funeral commence. Everyone is going to be in attendance but Elena, who wasn't ready to accept the fact that Damon is gone. In her gut, if she shows up at the funeral it's as if she's accepted his death. And she wasn't ready for that yet. She's invested way too much into this, to turn back and say he's gone. To say Bonnie's gone too…

Jeremy, Caroline, Stefan and others have tried to tell her countless times that they're gone… and there is no bringing them back. The other side collapsing was final. The end. The beginning of the end of Elena's new life… without Damon.

She slept in his bed every night and bawled her eyes out. She lie on her side and rubbed her hand down one of Damon's jackets, wishing he was lying there to comfort her.

"You need to go, Elena," Caroline says, sitting on the edge of Damon's bed. Elena is curled up under the blankets, on her side. The bags under her eyes were puffy and red. Her face is as frozen as it was the day Damon and Bonnie died: her eyes huge and dark red and her hair a dirty shag to it. Everything looked stretched on her face, and in a very painful way.

She doesn't say anything to Caroline. Caroline sighs, her eyes rolling to the corner of her eye. She stands up.

"Fine, Elena. But Damon wouldn't want to see you being so weak," Caroline stares at Elena, waiting for a response from that cold remark. She turns around dramatically, her short black dress twirling with her, and walks out of Damon's room.

Out of all her friends, Caroline was the most adamant at letting Elena know that Damon and Bonnie are gone. They're gone and there isn't anything Elena can do. She battered it into Elena's mind on a constant setting, a repetitive hurtfulness to it, from Elena's angle anyway. Caroline was just trying to give Elena some tough love, and Elena hasn't been this upset since Jeremy first died, so Caroline knew tried to take a different angle this time around. But Elena didn't see it that way.

At least Stefan, Tyler, and the others tried to help, but Caroline had no hope at all. That hurt Elena and instilled a bit of hostility in her towards Caroline. Though she's lifeless at the moment, and continuously filling herself with false hope, she still has a passion somewhere and right now, it's filled with anger... Anger for Caroline.

Elena gripped the sheets of Damon's bed, her face still so emotionless. She's on the edge of falling, on the verge of collapsing, of diving down a well of despondence.

Later that night, Caroline and the others came back to the mansion to have a small get together. Elena stormed down the stairs and into the Salvatore living room.

"Guys! I know where Damon and Bonnie are! They're in another dimension or… or… " As Elena hesitates to find the right words, the others look on. Stefan removes the glass from his lips and sits it on the table. He moves around it to get closer to Elena. He shakes his head and she looks, her eyes filling with water.

"Elena…" He says, showing her calming eyes.

"No. No… I just told you where he was… I…" She continues, her spider-like fingers running through her hair. She grabs at her hair, embarrassed at the disagreeing looks staring at her.

Matt rises off the sofa and walks up to Elena. "They're gone, Elena. We tried to help you find them, but… it's over."

Elena tightens her lips and shakes her head slowly. She takes a few steps back, running into Jeremy. He tries to console her in his grasp, but she wiggles out of it.

"You all think I'm crazy," Elena yells. Everyone had something to say, or they either shook their head, but the only thing Elena heard out of those were Caroline's remarks: "Yeah, pretty much!"

She glares at Caroline, an evil rising within her, and she launches and tackles her to the ground. Stefan sprints over and throws Elena off of her. She tries to run back at her, but Stefan turns around, stopping her and pushing her out of the mansion. He slams the door behind her.

"Elena, you've got to stop this," Stefan says to her, his head at an angle.

"Me?" Elena says pointing to herself. Her eyes swell with water. "I only tried to tell you guys what I knew and you all didn't care!"

"Because you're in denial, Elena! We want to understand you, but you have to understand us. Every time you talk about him, every time you bring him up—" He puts his fist over his mouth, trying to hold in tears, "It brings us back to that horrible, horrible place where we realized we're never getting them back."

Elena backs away, nodding and looking away from Stefan. She can understand where he's coming from. How selfish she's been, and how implicitly cold her actions have become. She sighs, and wipes the tears from her face. Her and Stefan stand in each other's presence, the attraction from the beginning that'll be there till the end toiling between them and omitting an understanding from both of them. Stefan opens his arms and Elena falls into them, she doesn't sob. Only a tear falls from her swollen, bloodshot eyes.

Stefan, however, is shaking while holding Elena. He's hugging her so tightly and so close, and for some reason, he doesn't want to let her go. It's like, she's the only who can get him through all of this… because he hasn't shed one tear since Damon died. But him and Elena, with some binding and intangible connection, he seems to fall right into her arms and let out his frustration, anger, and torment.

After a while, Stefan pulls away.

"Thanks for that, Elena… I really needed that."

Elena nods nonchalantly. She walks passed Stefan and into the mansion, not looking at one curious face in there. She turns the corner and runs into Tyler.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Tyler says, helping Elena up.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" She asks him, not looking for an answer, more out of annoyance.

"I'm heading back to campus," He says, getting ready to walk past her. She stops him, placing her hand on his chest.

"Campus? Whitmore?"

"Nah, Mystic Falls Community—Yes! Whitmore!" He says looking at her with a smile.

"Can you wait here a second?"

"O..kay."

Elena walks away, towards the stairs. Tyler puts his hands in his pocket, walking into the living room. He sees Caroline, looking as elegant as a butterfly in that black dress, and approaches her. Caroline turns around.

"Oh, hey," Caroline says, smiling indefinitely. It's been awkward for the two of them, Caroline sort of wanting to start things again with Tyler and Tyler on the road of moving along with his life. He loves Caroline, but is he in love with her? It faded once she did the dirtiest thing she could ever do to Tyler. He accepted what she did and, though he faults her for it, he doesn't hold it over her head. Not anymore. He's back to his old self now, his hot-headed and mean by nature type of self, and holding grudges is the last thing that should be on his mind.

Tyler smiles, a fake one. She notices but doesn't say anything.

"Hey, Care," He says, his head turning around, looking for Elena.

"You getting ready to go?" She asks, her eyes straightening a bit.

"Yeah, I'm just waiting for Elena." Caroline gives a disapproving look.

"Elena? What is she doing?" Tyler shrugs and Elena walks into the living room, a rolling suitcase with her. Her hair is in a messy ponytail as she walks towards Caroline. She's holding a bunch of papers in her hand and shoves pass Caroline, throwing them in the fireplace. Caroline holds her mouth open in dismay as Elena walks back to her suitcase and walks out of the mansion.

Stefan sees her and is speechless, he's not sure what to say or what to think. One minute she's on a different plane of existence, somewhere in a field of despondence. And now she's completely flipped a switch, she's out of bed and she's being active. What changed her mind? Who knows, really.

Tyler walks out of the mansion and sees Elena standing by his car. She grabs on the door handles of his locked car, agitated.

"It's locked, Tyler," She tells him, pursing her lips. He unlocks them from his keychain.

"I'm aware," He says to himself and wondering what plan Elena has up her sleeve now. He was there for her, helping her when she needed it most. But anything drastic, anything out of the ordinary, and he's leaving her on the street. No need to bring the delusional negativity of Elena Gilbert into his presence… it's a long car ride and Tyler just wants to have some peace after everything that went down.

He shuts the door and begins to start the engine. Elena sits the passenger seat back and turns her head towards her window, ready to get some shut eye.

"Elena, what're you doing?" Tyler asks her, the question begging to be divulged from his mind. He is just as baffled and shocked as Stefan. Seeing her do this one-eighty, from a lethargic kind of depression to actively depressed. It's obvious she's hurt still, but whatever lit a fire under her butt has got her on her feet. Tyler wants to know why, and it's his car—_my freaking car—_ he thought, and he has every right to know.

"I don't want to be here. So, I'm going with you," Elena says, her eyes fixated on the window. "Whether it's Whitmore or somewhere else. Just far away from here."

Tyler considered the idea of a road trip. Dropping all ties of Mystic Falls, not telling anyone, releasing their inhibitions and just going on a trip to some random place. With Elena Gilbert though? That would be kind of awkward, but not for Elena. She didn't care where she went, or who she was with, just as long as it was far from Mystic Falls and the group of people she cared about most. She just needs time away from them. To deal with the death of Damon on her own terms and on her own time, because at the end of it all, it's only her. So, it may be selfish, but she's doing what she thinks she has to do in order to rise above all this.

"What made you change your mind? I mean, you've been lying in your bed all day since Damon and Bonnie disappeared," He says her. She turns to face him and just shrugs, the cold, heartless face slowly dissipating… entering the fearfulness that she's been holding at bay.

Tyler could understand. The quick switch, an almost timeless shift, almost as if she's some kind of yin and yang. It happened to him. Going from wolf, to hybrid, and back to human with the maddening temperament of his old self. The only difference is the will of it all: unwillingly for Tyler and willing for Elena. Time will reveal the impacts, the consequences… but until then…

Tyler puts the gear into shift and reverses out of the driveway. Elena stares at the Salvatore mansion. She'll never forget it. She'll never forget Damon.


	2. Chapter 2

Tyler pulled his Jeep Wrangler into the gas station, parking next to a gas pump. He looks over at Elena.

"You want anything?" He asks her to convey the message that she needs to eat. Elena shakes her head no. He gets out of the car.

Elena looks straight out of the windshield, then at the radio. Nine o' three. They've been on the road for about an hour, no telling where they are going. She hasn't asked Tyler yet, and she probably doesn't care. The only thing she cares about is staying away from Mystic Falls awhile. Her sulky eyes looked at the gas station, seeing Tyler at the counter with the clerk.

"Twenty-five on three," Tyler says handing the clerk his money. He looks to his left and out of the corner of his eye he sees a peculiar kind of gum. Bazooka bubble gum. He remembers chewing the hard, sugary gum all of the time as a kid. He grabs a pack and throws it on the counter, tilting his head at the clerk.

Tyler grabs the pack of gum off the counter and walks to the door. He opens the pack and throws a piece in his mouth as he exits the station, eyes averting left and right when he crosses to his jeep.

Elena takes a deep breath, her chest rising slowly and falling back into place. She stares through her window, the dark blue sky taking its time letting night veil over it. She hears a noise behind her. A clank. She turns around in her seat, alarmed, and sees Tyler pumping the gas. She sighs, her eyes jumping up to her eyelids. The girl's been extra jumpy lately, walking in paranoia. And since Damon died, she's feeling a little more vulnerable.

Tyler's finger taps against the pump. He stares impatiently as the gas meter slows to approach its last few gallons. He mumbles some profanity and pulls the gas pump out of his tank and shoves it back into its holder. Tyler screws the top back onto the tank and closes the small door, jogging to the driver seat and getting in.

Tyler starts his jeep and drives off onto the road.

He turns his bright lights on and sees the rocky, crater holed road way more clearly. Elena wants to get some shut eye, but she can't seem to sleep. Her mind is restless and unrelenting on matters of Damon.

_He's dead, he's dead, he's dead, he's dead,_ she says over and over again in her mind until its tattooed on the pink, bulgy walls of her brain. The pain is real and she relives it again every time she thinks of him. She doesn't want to forget him, but she'd like to move on. Somehow and in some way.

Tyler kept peeking over at Elena, trying to get a good look at her in his peripheral. He's still stumped on why she came along with him. And why he let her come. He couldn't just say no, and it's not like it'd be the weirdest thing in the world. He's known Elena all his life. So, as he taps his fingers on the steering wheel to the melody playing in his head, he thinks of a way to make the situation less awkward for him. He digs in his pocket for the bubble gum and pulls it out. He hands it to Elena and she looks at it, her eyes thinning out slightly.

She grabs it and takes a piece, reading the little comic that is usually on the inside of a wrapper. Tyler watches her, or at least he tries to, not wanting to get too distracted from the road. He turns his head to her, periodically. She just crumbles the wrapper and rolls the window, tossing the wrapper out of the window.

"Hey, Elena…" He says, a little insulted by her actions, but only because the Bazooka Bubble gum wrappers mean something deeper to them than she'd thought about. _So damn silly_— Tyler thinks as Elena looks at him, a kind of scattered anguish in her eyes. Something he'd never seen before. He just shakes his head and continues driving, looking straight.

"Did you want something, Tyler?" She asks, staring at him. The silence was unnerving, but at the same time kind of relaxing. So, she could have kept the car in a fog of silence, but instead she wanted to break through it and create a different vibe.

"No, I…" He says, still thinking of his very silly recent thoughts, "Where'd you want go?" Tyler says sudden urgency. He catches Elena off guard with the question. She shrugs while shaking her head, her mind a little absent from the current conversation. She'd go anywhere at this moment… She thought about Whitmore. _No, not yet,_ she thinks.

"Where are you willing to drive?" She asks, staring at through the windshield.

"Well, I have two weeks before I start my semester at Whitmore…" He says, lifting his hand from the steering wheel in a shrug, "So, I could go anywhere before that time. I have gas, money." He looks at Elena and her lips part. She blinks.

"Can you take me to Denver?" Elena asks.

"Denver?" Tyler says in a tone of incredulity. He chuckles, thinking she's joking. She looks away and leans her head back.

"It's okay. You don't have to take me," Elena says.

"No, Elena, I will. I've never been to Denver before, so," Tyler tells her. "We can go."

"You don't even have to stay. You can just drop me off."

"Nah… Who's in Denver?"

"Some family."

Tyler nods. "Okay. Just… look it up on your GPS. My phone's been acting like a little bitch."

Elena pulls out her phone and someone's calling. It's Stefan. She ignores his call, exhaling. She opens her GPS app and puts in the address, handing the phone to Tyler.

"This'll be a long ride," He says, pushing on the gas pedal and speeding down the open road. Elena grabs onto the door handle, and sitting up tensely. Tyler belts out, rolling his window down and yelling out of it. He throws his fist in the air, biting his lips and looking at Elena.

She looks at him like he is insane, and is kind of rethinking the whole 'road trip with Tyler Lockwood' idea. She knows his werewolf curse is back to its original form, and she has a feeling it'll manifest itself again in Tyler.

"WOOHOO!" Tyler screams outside his window, driving in the middle of the road. He looks at Elena, wide eyed. "You want me to slow down?"

She cocks her head. "Kind of, Tyler, yeah."

He laughs hysterically. "Too bad!" He says to her, then proceeds to scream out of the window again. Elena begins to glare at him, he turns his head back at her and gasps.

"There goes a face!" Tyler says making known Elena's irresponsive face lately. Elena turns away from him, close to asking him to take her back home. It seems she'll never evade misery. Tyler saying that moreover reinforces the fact that she's heartsick, cold, a bit detached, and emanating a dreary depression-like aura on her and everyone around her. It's almost like he's mocking her.

The grassy fields pass by like recurring dreams; it all looks the same, but the eerie feeling of difference rides its way into your veins. Elena pours her gaze out onto the foggy fields just outside her car window, passing by like a flipbook— slowly seeing the dark image of a man standing in the far distance, the moon casting a shadow to the figure's left side.

Tyler's obtrusive shouting wanes, and minutes later Elena is allured by the mysterious figure standing, almost in the exact place, as the car moves along the street. The shadow is like the moon, following her, always… except in a veil of blackness.

The music in the car blasts through Elena's ears, startling her. Tyler turns up the radio a bit. It took Elena awhile to realize it's not that loud. She was so focused on the shadow putting obsession in her eye, that she didn't notice Tyler turned it up before. He was listening to a song that mentioned the 'valley of death'. At least that's what Elena heard.

Tyler bobs his head to the music and cuts his eyes at Elena. She was lying on her fist, fighting sleep, it looked like. He thought it was cute. It reminded him of a puppy he had when he was younger, a feisty little thing. Ronnie, his dog, would sit by him and his eyes would close slowly, then open in a quick motion. He remembered the puppy being protective and territorial. Maybe something was just on the sad girl's mind.

_Oh, wait. There was,_ He thinks to himself. But keeping herself up in a car? It's ridiculous. Damon isn't just going to show up in the middle of the road, and if he did, Tyler would probably hit him. Not purposely, of course. He just wouldn't see him.

Tyler looks at Elena's oval, little eyes as they take their time to close, in hesitant pauses, then open up like a blooming rose.

"Elena," He says; his voice loud, to Elena's dismay. She looks at Tyler with regretful eyes. He smirks, his mouth agape, getting the feeling she's annoyed by him with her eyes are conveying one message:

_What the F*** do you want now?_

But she doesn't say anything. Just looks at him.

"You can go to sleep," He tells her, "I'll take care of this." Elena is speechless; opening her mouth to disagree, but nothing coming out. He was right about her. She was trying to stay awake, but why?

"Yeah," She replies with a confessed sigh. Her head hangs back as she lets her body take control of her actions. Her eyes stare into the darkness of her eyelids until the violet-esque colors change into a light wondrous of her one true love. Damon.

Tyler looks at her again, sleeping peacefully. He looks back onto the road, unable to see the distance ahead. It's about midnight now. He yawns inside the dauntless of night, his tires running into a pothole. He gains control of his car, looking at Elena, hoping to not have woken her. She still sleeps, her bottom lip slowly pulling apart from her top.

He looks away, a threading guilt forming through his mind. Why does he keep checking on Elena? Like she's an unprofessionally diagnosed suicide waiting to happen.

_Don't take much of a professional to see the dead in Elena's eyes. She's falling apart at the seams and I'm here. The only person for miles, the only one near, that has to bring her back from the departed. _

Tyler thinks all of that as an indie song with a nice, 80s sound to it comes on his radio. He snakes his head to it as he drives along the road, but as he reaches his last few thoughts:

_How am I going to be the one to do that? What am I doing? Poor girl. If Caroline ever…_

He stops dancing. He gazes over at Elena with sympathetic eyes, reflecting off the bright moon. The corner of her mouth twitches, the closest to him. He focuses harder and sees a smile. He cocks his head and wonders what the desolate girl was thinking of… He doesn't go to deep though. For some reason, nostalgia comes to the forefront.

Bright, semi-truck lights almost blind Tyler as he turns back to the road. He panics as the semi-truck flies by, swearing at it as it went by. He held his chest after, still fuming, trying to catch his breath.

"Fuck," He says to himself, his eyes rolling to a quick look outside his window. He sees a sign that tells him where the next highway entrance is. He comes up to a bridge, a highway under the bridge with a plethora of cars active. He takes a left at the next ramp and gets on the highway.

"Nnnn…" Elena mumbles in her sleep. Tyler does a quick look, but pays it no mind. She's just having a dream. She turns to face him, her face rich with emotion and tangled with intensity. Tyler looks at her unclear on what to do. She turns back the other way, and then back to him. Flipping and twisting with an unseen aggression in her awakened movements, she suddenly stops. Her painful expression resting at ease. Tyler closes his mouth, swallowing the dry spit. He focuses back on the road, the many cars passing him.

He eases his car into the left lane. Another horn disturbs his eardrums as he realizes a car was in his blind spot, and he the car almost clipped him. He pulls back into his lane in an angered swerve, staring into his side view mirror, the black Tesla speeding up the side of him. He looks at the tented windows of the black Tesla, pining to see what asshole is driving that car. The windows roll down as the driver revs his engine, pushing on his gas… tempting Tyler, teasing him. His face can barely seen, but Tyler can see he's wearing a black top hat and a fiendish-like grin stretches the dark face.

The man points two fingers at Tyler, then straight ahead. He pushes on his gas and accelerates down the highway. Tyler looks at Elena, still sound asleep.

"Hang on, Elena…"He says through his teeth, bracing himself. He puts the petal to the medal and chases after the man in the black Tesla. As his Jeep picks up speed, and struggles to gain ground against the Tesla, he can feel the adrenaline rushing into his bones and extracting out into his veins, filling with him a familiar sense of confidence. It gave him power, a high, and he sucks it all in as he chases down the Tesla.

_What the hell am I doing? Am I this bored? Oh well. Just hope Elena won't mind._

The Tesla weaves through an assortment of cars, in elegant movements as if the man is some professional driver. Tyler battles to keep up, his speedometer slowly reaching one hundred miles per hour. His shift to the speedometer, and he becomes breathless. It's intoxicating; this driving. Thrilling, daring, and it definitely curved his anger into something else.

It seems as his car gains more speed and momentum, the Tesla does too. And in a blink, the Tesla is gone. Tyler can't pinpoint it anywhere in front of him. He slams his hand against the steering wheel, thinking about it a minute. After that, he looks at Elena. She's still sleep.

_Thank God._

Tyler's car slows to the legal speed of seventy and he just cruises along the road. He begins to chuckle, the daunting feeling vibing through him. He smiles, exhaling. He wants to feel that again, but next time, he'd like to win. And he'll never win in a Jeep. He looks in the distance, squinting his eyes, for the Tesla. Nothing.

The Tesla is gone and now Tyler is bored. He vacates to the exultant feeling that has just surpassed through him; it feel like a cold breeze was inside of his body, running from finger to shoulder from shoulder to his lower abs. It was euphoric, and it was nothing he'd felt before. He yearned for that feeling again as he read the high way signs: "2 miles until exit 37A"

Tyler rolled his window down, sticking his arm out. The wind howled and rushed into his car. Elena fills the coldness swim over her body. She awakens, sitting herself up and taking a deep breath. She looks around in a paranoid episode, then her dilated eyes contract as she realizes where she is.

Not in her dreams, and that's all she needed to know. Her expression approached a calm, frigid look as it gazed on the dashboard and up through the window shield. Elena looked at Tyler, right when he was looking at her. His stare didn't hold—he was thinking she knew about his constant looking. Her stare held. She stared at the flashing lights and fluorescent streetlights moving over his face.

Her gaze turns back to the road and it stays there. She could sleep, yes. But she doesn't want to. It's too good. Damon is always there, smirking with his cutesy smile. His black hair slicking back as he runs his hands through it, the blue light vast and inviting enveloping everything behind him. She can touch him. And talk to him. And it feels so real. His body so corporeal. The heat explodes on her face and her eyes become watery.

_I_ _wish he was here_, she thinks, looking into the backseat. Elena reaches down at her seatbelt and unclips it, climbing from the front to the back. Tyler watches her unsure of what she is doing. He wants to ask but, he decides to let her do her thing. He's done enough with the illegal racing, which if he could he'd do again, and the psychotic yelling he did earlier. In which he still couldn't figure out why that happened. He was just happy for some reason.

"There's a blanket behind those seats," He tells her, looking through the rearview mirror at her dejected face.

_She's so gone… _He thinks. _Did she even hear what I said?_

These thoughts procure his mind, as his eyes jump from the road to the rearview mirror in uncanny allotted times. Elena lays the side of her head on her hands. Tyler gets off the nearest exit: '37A'.

He pulls into the quaint city, streetlights align the streets unequivocally. A definite contradiction to the dilapidated and abandoned buildings. He pulled over. He got out of the car and walked to his trunk, opening up the back. He grabs a cream-colored blanket, running to the backseat door. Elena's sleeping again. He throws the blanket over her body, accidentally covering her face. He pulls it down until it's resting just under his chin, then he straightens the blanket out over her body to get rid of any lumps or ridges. He exhales.

Tyler shuts the door and gets back into the driver's seat. He starts the car and gets back on the road, driving through the town. He picks up his phone, looking for somewhere to sleep for the night. He was just as sleepy as Elena, and a cozy motel or something wouldn't hurt for temporary purposes.

He finds the coordinates to a motel not too far from his location, and sets his GPS to it. He hears a buzzing sound. It's Elena's phone. Stefan's smiling face is on it. He looks back up at the road.

Finding the motel, he parks and turns his car off. It took about ten minutes to find it, roughly. He looked back at Elena, shaking her.

"Hey, Elena," He says while shaking her. Her eyes open and sits up, looking around.

"Are we there?" She says, an eagerness in her voice. Tyler's head drops.

"No," He replies. "And far from it. We're at a motel for now. Thought we could crash here for the night."

Elena looks through the windshield at the motel. She wasn't feeling it.

"I'm sorry, I'm just really tired," Tyler says thinking himself of how he probably shouldn't have raced the car down the highway.

"I could drive."

"Nah."

"I mean, you can't be the only one pulling the weight," Elena says, feeling a little useless. Her lovesick dilemma has vastly taken over her life. She's noticed far before, but didn't have the resolve to do something about it. She still doesn't, but if she has to she will.

"Okay, stay here. I'll be right back," Tyler gets out of the car, but turning the radio on before leaving. He left the keys in the ignition as he walked to motel's office to get a room. Elena studied the keys… Caroline's senior picture on a keychain. He still had it. She looked down, her head angled and her face swollen. The radio broadcasters talk lively in the background… "…Adilyn? Do we have an Adilyn on the line— what about Elena?"

Elena looks up at the sound of her name.

"Yeah," the caller on the radio said, "This is Elena."

"Elena tell us," one of the broadcasters spoke, "about your recent experience being married to someone but in love with someone else."

"Yeah, I—" Tyler opens the door and removes the keys from the ignition. He motions for Elena to follow. She gets out of the car and walks to the back with him. He hands her, her suitcase and bags. He grabs his suitcase out and shuts the trunk. Elena follows him to the room and waits for him to unlock the door.

They walk into the motel and Elena rolls her eyes. It's a basic, unforgiving motel room. No effort in decency and the smell of old, dusty suits enters the nostrils as soon as the aura hits someone. Elena walks to the furthest bed.

"Last time I was in a motel, I wasn't exactly myself," She says, sitting her things on the bed and then sitting on the bed herself.

"What do you mean?" Tyler says, doing the same.

"Katherine was passengered inside of my body," She tells him and shrugs. "You know, the usual."

Tyler smiles a bit. Elena blinks, turning her head towards the small twenty inch TV. She walks up to it and turns it on. She finds the remote on the nightstand, separating the beds. She starts flipping through the channels.

Tyler opens his bag, pulling out a wife beater and some shorts. He goes into the bathroom to change, sitting his phone on the counter. It rings. Caroline. He pushes ignore as he slips off his pants and socks. He looks into the mirror as he pulls the wife beater over his ripped body and his shorts up his legs. He picks up his phone and perks his lips. She left a voicemail, no surprise.

He listens to it: "Hey, um, it's me Caroline. Just… calling to see if you're okay making it back to Whitmore. I'm okay here. Everyone is, really. Just difficult, you know, with everything. And then my argument with Elena, just, ugh. Is she okay? Tyler call me back ASAP. Please."

Tyler walks out of the bathroom and sees Elena smothered under the blankets, about ready to go back to sleep. He hops on his bed and sits his phone on the counter.

"Caroline called," He says to her, not a shred of care elicit on Elena's body. Tyler knows Caroline can be overbearing and maybe a little, over-caring, but it's all from a good place. It probably is harder for Elena to see it, especially considering the circumstances.

"She wants to know if we're okay," Tyler tells her.

"What did you tell her?" Elena asks.

"She left a voice mail. I didn't actually pick up."

Elena looks at him. "Don't pick up. Ever." And she clicks the TV off, turning and facing away from Tyler. He sighs and clicks the light off on the lamp sitting on the nightstand. He rolls onto his back.

The next day, Elena awakens to the cool air drifting in from the window. She pulls herself against the bed's headboard and looked around. A note was written on yellow paper in cursive handwriting:

_Went to get food. We'll leave again in a few._

_P.S. You should get some food too, man._

A little smiley face complemented the note. Elena's thumb lightly runs across it, then she folds the note up and inhales. She exhales, her gaze fixating on the doorway.

. It opens. Tyler walks in, a white bandana on his head. He's holding a white foam container. He sits on the bed, greeting Elena with his eyes. He starts digging into the eggs, bacon, and French toast he'd just bought. The food like rain and sunshine— symbols of freedom.

Elena held up the note, putting it on the nightstand. He was about to say something, but feels something in his throat. He pounds his chest a couple times, trying to get the food down.

"Hey, you not hungry?" Tyler asks. Elena looks down at the floor, her fingers playing with the sheeting on the bed.

"Not really," "She replies. "But, when are leaving again?"

"Soon. I just need to handle some business."

"Well, what kind of business?"

"Just know, it'll be a few days, okay?" He says. There was a sting in his voice that Elena felt. She didn't want to speak on it though, too much conflict already spurring in her head. Tyler puts his food to the side and walks to the door.

"I'm going for a jog. I'll be back," Tyler says, "And in the meantime, get something to eat. Preferably, not me." He winks at her and leaves. She watches him jog pass the window.

She considers what he said. To feed again. Her phone buzzes and she searches the bed for it. She finds it. It's Jeremy calling.

"Hello," Elena says, reluctant.

"Hey Elena," he replies over the phone. "Where are you?"

Elena doesn't answer him. His words become inaudible as soon as he says his name. All she hears is the static through the phone as the one man she vowed to never forget makes another irretraceable appearance in her fragile mind: Damon. And from the mouth of one of the few people she is trying to avoid. That only makes her relive it and reminds her of him.

She grips her phone in anger and pulls it away from her ear. Jeremy's panicked voice blasts through the phone. He's calling her name repetitively. She shuts her eyes tight, her face angling slowly. The sound of his voice pulsed through her veins and they quaked her body, her mind, her soul… she threw the phone at the wall and it broke into pieces.

"I can't stay like this," Elena says to herself feeling as if she'll never feel anything else. "I cannot stay like this." Her voice begins to break as she pulls the covers up towards her face. She takes a deep breath and stops the tears from falling.

"I can't," She says, getting up. She walks to her suitcase and unzips it. Shirts, pants, short, panties, and bras were sporadically placed in her suitcase. Maybe because she was in a rush and just wanted to leave Mystic Falls as fast as possible.

She pulls out some clothes and walks into the bathroom. The light flickered above her inside the bulb. She ignored it and looked into the mirror, pushing her hair back. She stops and stares at her face a minute. Everything looks the same, but it feels different.

_Guess that's life_, she thinks as she takes the jeans off she slept in the night before. She pulls a pair of shorts up her skinny waist and then a long, grey thermal on her upper body. She rubs down her shirt, looking in the mirror, trying to remove the wrinkles.

She walks out of the bathroom and puts on her sneakers, heading out of the door. She crosses the small parking lot of the motel, stepping onto the sidewalk. She doesn't know where she is going, but sometimes it takes not knowing the destination to guide a person to true growth. And that's what Elena is looking for. Personal growth.

The streets of Exit 37A, that's what this small area is called, are depleted and hazardous. It's like a place the people living here, and there are, have given up on keeping the town in good condition. Elena folds her arms as she walks down one of the streets. Big, orange cones surround a deep pothole that she walks pass. She looks to her right at the many businesses in the buildings, then she sees an alley. Its desolateness alluring, she walks into the alley. She walks slowly, stepping over the debris and trash on the uneven ground. She accidentally kicks a thick, black purse on the ground. She picks it up and opens it, searching the purse.

Elena finds condoms and mostly trash, but then she found a wallet. She opens the wallet and sees an identification card for a woman named Angelica Spivey. She was black and twenty years old… Elena found about two hundred dollars in the girl's wallet. She didn't even think about what might have happened to the girl, or why her purse along with a lot money is just left out in the open. Elena dropped everything but the money, stashing it in her pocket.

She sighs and checks behind her. No one. She continues walking down the alley, reaching a dead end. Elena turns around and is compelled to leave the alley, until she sees a ladder attached to a balcony on the side of the building. She stands under the ladder, leaping off of her toes and climbing. The grime on the metal bars almost made her slip, but she retained a grip and eventually made it onto the balcony.

She climbs up the stairs until she reaches the roof of the building. She hops onto it, wiping the dust and dirt from her hands onto her shorts. She walks to the other side of the roof, staring down at the locals. Not many people, but some were walking down the street or waiting for a bus. She also saw a small park in the distance, with kids having fun on the jungle gym… a lot of kids, not many parents.

Elena put one foot on the edge of the roof, still looking at the park. She squints. A man was pacing a few feet away from the playground, his head going back and forth from the jungle gym to the ground. She puts her other foot on the edge and steps up, spreading her arms out to balance.

The man pulls out a phone and starts talking. Elena uses her vampire hearing to listen in and finds out he's talking by himself. There's no one on the receiving end. She starts walking, balancing, on the edge of the building.

_Pedophile,_ she thinks with an indifferent look upon her face. She looks away from him and sees a girl standing on another roof in a white apron and hairnet. She is smoking a cigarette. Elena studies the girl for a minute, before vamp speeding her way to her.

She stood a few feet behind the girl, who had to have felt a presence near her, because she turned around quickly and jumps, dropping her cigarette.

"Oh my gosh. You scared me!" The girl says to Elena, picking her cigarette from off the ground. She takes another puff of her cigarette, waiting for Elena to say something. But Elena just stares at her, turning her head like some confused puppy.

The girl swallows. "Do I know you?" asks the girl. She was starting to feel nervous and a bit uneasy. Elena's eyes turn into a glare with borderline emptiness. The girl felt Elena's eyes on her but it also felt like she was looking through her, as if she was transparent.

Elena flashes in front of her, pinning her over the roof. The girl was about to scream, but Elena covered the girl's mouth and she fed on her. She did in a rather sloppy and conspicuous way.

A little boy being chased by some older townies felt a warm raindrop on his cheek. He stops, wiping his cheek and looking up at the sky. He saw nothing. No rain. He looks at his finger and sees the blood. The next thing he sees is his face planted against the ground.

Elena throws the girl onto the roof's ground and crawls on top of her. She sees blood run down the girl's neck and before it touches ground, Elena catches it with her tongue. She licks the blood clean up to the neck wound and sinks her fangs back into her warm skin. She sucks her until the girl is almost unconscious and then she removes her lips and hovers above the girl's face.

The girl shivers, wanting to clutch her neck, but Elena's legs have her arms pinned down. The girl doesn't even have it in her to scream. Elena contemplates leaving the poor girl there. Not even compelling her. Just leaving her there to die. Or leaving her there for someone to find her and see her. To see her in this tragic, helpless position. A vulnerable and obsolete state— a girl on the cusp of death, so close she can feel it shredding through her body. A part of her wants to do that.

Elena wipes the blood from her mouth and then bites into her wrist. Still deciding, she hesitantly forces her wrist into the girl's mouth. After giving her enough, Elena removes her wrist and compels the girl.

"You will not remember any of this," Elena says sloppily, dragging herself up from the girl and walking away, an empty and hopeless expression crossing her face.


	3. Chapter 3

As Tyler walks out of a pharmacy, emptying a water bottle into his stomach, he remembers the minced moments of his somber childhood. He would lie in bed, holding the covers tight up to his chest hearing the vile voices of his parents beam at each other blows that would be embedded into their memory forever. They didn't consider Tyler, the lone wolf, awake in bed because of the unimaginable sounds of his parent's vicious words.

"At least I didn't sleep with the entirety of fucking Mystic Falls!" Tyler's Father, Richard Lockwood, screamed at Carol, Tyler's mother.

"You're such an ass, you know that?" She screams back.

"Tell me some shit I don't know!" Richard said as he walked towards the front door. Carol chased after him, grabbing his arm.

"Where are you—" Carol begins to say, but is interrupted by an angered Rich:

"Get off me!" Rich pushes his arm against her and she stumbles back. He walks out and slams the door behind him.

Tyler jumps in the bed, the sound of the door scaring him as it booms through his house. He gets out of bed and runs to his door, the sound of his toes like scattering, little mice. He peeks through the door, stepping his foot through.

"Don't bother coming back, Rich!" Tyler hears his mother yell.

He walks his bare feet down the hall. When he reaches the railing that connects to the staircase, he crouches and peeks between its pillars. He watches his mother turn and walk up the stairs. He stands up as her eyes come upon him.

"Tyler?" Carol says, she quickly runs up the stairs. "Oh, Tyler. You didn't hear all that, did you?" She places her hands on his arms and rubs them. The little wolf turns away from his mother's gaze. She grabs his chin, turning his face back to hers. She knew he heard everything, saw everything. It's not the first time she's caught him. She's just lucky it was her and not his father.

"Come on, let's get you to bed," Carol says, picking Tyler up knowing just as well the boy is too old for that. "Oh! You're getting heavy!" She chuckles.

Tyler crawls back into bed. He was sleepy… his mother can see it. He felt it. But he was unable to sleep. This inability stems from the constant drive of emotions swirling in his little mind. The consistent worry about the status of whether his parent's are getting along or not. It's all he thought about his child, because it was all he knew. Their arguing and animosity between them only seemed to stop in public places, and somehow was projected onto him. Onto Tyler. In his innocent mind, he felt like it was acceptable for parents to discipline their child in public, albeit non-violently, and not a single stranger around care about it. But Tyler knew it came from somewhere else when they were in public. When his parents would tell him how much better, or how much more he could be at whatever the challenge he was taking on at the time. It derived from the rage his parents had for each other, and they simply tacked to a different, less serious issue when the three were out and about.

Even now, in present day, as Tyler jogs to let off some steam. Where it came from? He didn't know. But he feels much better after a run, but even now he wonders about the status of his parents relationship, and how he factors in to that. They might be dead and gone, but he's still here. And they are still a part of him, whether he wants to accept that truth or not.

The streets started to get pretty busy in Exit 37A as Tyler jogs. The chilly, cold air evaporates as the muggy, noon air settles over the streets. Tyler jogs around a bunch of sketchy men rolling dice on the sidewalk. He looks back at them as one of the men pick up the money that was laying in the middle of them, when he turns back around he runs into an old lady and she stumbles back into the street.

Tyler's body goes into some shock as he hears a horn blaring and then the horrifying sound of the lady's body tumbling over a car. Tyler sprints into the street after the lady.

"No, no, no, no!" Tyler repetitively says as he thinks about what to do. People begin to crowd around Tyler. The person that hit the lady gets out of the car with his eyes bulging out his head. He averts his eyes to the crowd of people on the sidewalk, talking and taking pictures with their phones. The young, teenage boy is feeling like his life is ending.

"This can't happen…" Tyler hears the boy whisper behind him. "Is she dead?" The boy asks. Tyler can feel the fear radiating off of him.

"Show some respect!" Tyler says, yelling at the crowd. "What the hell is wrong with y'all?"

"Bitch, we don't know you! And you pushed Ms. Laney in the street!" Some lady blamed him, saying it in front of everyone. Tyler bit his bottom lip in fury as the people gave him dirty looks. He clutches his sweat pants with his palms and grips, trying to calm himself. He looks away from the crowd and back to the lady, remembering what he needed to do.

"Get in the car!" Tyler says to the young boy, scared out of his mind.

"What?" The boy replies!

"Get in the damn car and start it!" Tyler growls back at the boy and he gets back in his car. Tyler picks the old lady up and walks to the car, opening up the back door.

"What the hell, man?" The boy questions, his high pitched voice screeching Tyler's ears.

"Look, I know you are scared, but you've GOT to stop screaming!" Tyler makes sure the lady is secure and shuts the door. Then he gets into the passenger seat, demanding the boy drive.

"Is she alive?" The boy looks back at the lady's unconscious body.

"She's breathing, but you need to drive to the nearest hospital!" Tyler tells the boy. And as he begins putting the gear into drive, a man bangs on his window and startles him. He refocuses and grabs the gear again. Tyler looks behind him and sees the crowd walking towards the car. Some were yelling, some were recording or taking pictures with their phone. He didn't know what to do. And as the boy finally got the car driving, finally gaining momentum to the hospital, Tyler thought about the decision. The boy was going on and on about something Tyler didn't care about, talking nervously.

Tyler was only hoping the lady would be okay. She did have a pulse, but she was old… And he figured the ambulance wouldn't have gotten there on time. So, he went with what he thought was a conscious decision.

"I have… a family. I got my girl pregnant three years ago," The boy continues. "We're barely surviving—I can't— This can't be happening!"

"Hey!" Tyler says to him and the boy looks at him attentively. "What's your name?"

"Greg."

"Well, Greg, you have nothing to worry about… I'll take full responsibility for any consequences this situation creates."

Greg looks through the windshield, exhaling. His mouth twitches as he tries to keep a smile from spreading over his face. Tyler noticed anyway. He turns and looks out the window as they come upon a red light. Tyler shuts his eyes tight and wishes the lady survives until they get to the hospital. When she was initially hit, Tyler thought he felt it. That twist in his gut, an uncanny cramp, he felt when he first started the werewolf gene. But that was just a human reaction. His guilt manifesting into something physical. And he's lucky it was only that— and he'll be lucky if it still is.

Greg's car stops in front of the entrance to the E.R. They both get out of the car. Tyler pulls the old lady out of the car and puts her on his shoulders. He kicks the door closed, running to the entrance. Greg opens the door for him and they run inside the hospital.

They run down a long, fluorescent hall way with a tan wooden wall on one side. The other side is a glass window, reflecting their sprinting bodies.

Tyler and Greg see a reception desk ahead. The nurse looks up and her eyes widen. She starts sifting through the papers on her desk, as if getting ready for Tyler and Greg.

"Hey!" Tyler screams. "We need your help!"

Tyler dials Elena's number on his phone, leaning against a window in the hospital hall way. He puts the phone up to his ear as it rings. He narrows his eyes on third ring, wondering what she could be doing. It goes to voicemail and he clicks his phone off. He sighs, pacing in the hall.

He needed to let her know what was going on with him, and that they might not be leaving as soon as she wanted. Tyler needed to see that the lady was okay before he could go anywhere. It was an instinctual thing that occurred to him— that made him want to stay.

Greg turned down the hall way. Tyler looked up at him and his furrow browed. He almost lost his breath because of how much of a resemblance Greg had to one of his fallen friends: Damon Salvatore. With his black leather jacket, jeans, and v-neck shirt; it was indisputable that Greg could have been Damon's brother. Greg's just shorter, leaner, and his hair isn't as dark as Damon's.

Tyler shakes his head, trying to get the image of Damon from out of his mind. Greg stops a few feet in front of Tyler, staring out the window. Tyler looks too, hearing the faint sound of police sirens while seeing them drive up to the building. He turns his gaze to the grey sky, it's gloominess reflecting the mood that is still between them.

"Do you think they're coming for us?" Greg asks, pressing his palm against the window. He stands on his toes to get a better look at the police cars. There are two.

"If anything," Tyler replies, "They're coming for me." Tyler blinks, ignoring the sirens and the speeding police cars. He continues to stare into the sky, for no reason but to try and accept the direness coming upon him.

Greg looks over at Tyler. He remembers what Tyler told him in the car, taking full blame. No one has ever been that kind to Greg, and just looking at Tyler, he would think that's the last person to ever be that way to him. But looks can be deceiving, Greg should know that. Although, it never fails. That first impression always has an effect on someone's perception.

"Thank you," Greg admits. Words he's been trying to spit out since Tyler said he'd take the blame. He just didn't know how. "I'll owe you."

"Don't," Tyler's eyes turn into a glare as the base in his voice deepens. "You don't owe me anything… I need to watch out for myself more."

_I have to be more careful_, Tyler is thinking. _I can't act like an idiot and not watch my surroundings… God, if I somehow get a pass through this… I am being super cautious._

Tyler was right. He needs to be more careful and less carefree. The werewolf gene is floating in him like a worm just waiting for something to latch onto. He can't let that happen.

"What do you mean?" Greg asks.

"Nothing. Just forget about it," Tyler says. He gets his phone from his pocket to check if Elena called at all. She didn't. He dials her number again and puts the phone to his ear, but this time it goes straight to voicemail.

"Hey, um, Elena it's Tyler, uh…" Tyler said. His mind goes blank as he searches for the right words to tell what happened. "…Something happened. And I might not be at the motel until late or…" Tyler looks up at Greg, feeling eyes on him, and they were. Greg was staring at him, listening probably.

"Just don't wait up or anything for me. Not that you would. But, bye."

Tyler hangs up and glances at Greg again. "What?" Tyler says. Greg looks out the window. He sees the policemen getting out of the car. His eyes widen. Tyler sees and looks out the window too. When he seen the cops, he had to take a deep breath as his heart dropped. At the same time, Greg and Tyler look at each other. Greg's phone starts ringing and he answers it.

"Hello?" Greg says. Tyler turns away and walks back into the lobby. He is so inclined to leave. To run. His nerves were getting to him. He wanted to get out of there and go. But that feeling, that instinct. Tyler wasn't moving. He knows what he did. He had to stay. And not because he needs to make sure the lady is alive for his sake, but for her sake also.

Tyler sits in a chair, wishing Elena would call. At this point, he needed someone to vent to. And it had to be someone he knew fairly well. And if anyone, it's Elena. Tyler picks up a magazine from the table and starts looking through it, thinking nothing of it. He was just trying to clear his mind. He swallows as he hears the shuffling and squeaky sounds of shoes against the floor. The cops.

Tyler takes a deep breath and the air flows out of him, slowly. He sees a uniformed man enter the lobby out of his peripheral and in an instant, everything around seemed to move in slow motion. He didn't bother looking up. A black family stands as the cops enter. A woman who seemed to look like a mother, cried to the cops. She pointed this way and that way, yelling at them, blaming them.

The lady Tyler had hit was black. Greg walks in, somehow holding it altogether. He sits next to Tyler, saying something. Tyler ignored him. Feeling a twisting inside of his stomach, he clutches his stomach. He leans over as his body feels a hot flash.

_No… FUCK no!_ Tyler thinks as the feeling intensifies and worsens. It felt like his stomach was expanding and retracting. He slowly leans over, feeling a hand on his back. He reacts fast, pushing the hand away. It was Greg's, who was standing up now. Tyler's stomach twists in pain again and Tyler groans.

The cops hear it and turn around. The family looks also. Tyler clenches his teeth. Minutes later, he falls out of his chair with his mouth open, salmon-colored puke coming out of his mouth. He stands up and runs to the nearest bathroom. He storms inside, running into a stall to let the rest of the puke out. He coughs and jerks, his mouth wide open over the toilet. He felt the sting of more coming through his throat, but nothing came up. He leaned back, landing on his butt hard. He holds his heart, breathing fast. He sits there a minute to catch his breaths and return his heart to a steady beat.

Staring up, he's relieved. He thought it was happening, that he was changing. But the lady is still alive. He must've was just sick, not feeling well. He did just accidentally push an old lady into a car. And she rolled and rolled over. It's a miracle she's still breathing.

Tyler stands up and walks to the faucet, turning it on. He throws water over his face to clean the puke residue from around his mouth and refresh his sweaty face. Greg walks in.

"Are you okay, man?" Greg says as he walks to the towel dispenser. He must be cleaning up Tyler's mess. An ode to "owing" him… But Tyler can't get pass his face. Since he compared to Damon's, it's all he can see.

Tyler nods. "I was just feeling a little sick," Tyler explains. Greg points at his own shirt. Tyler looks down and sees a stain on his tank top. He tries wiping it off, but only makes it worse. "And the cops, they aren't for us!" Greg runs out of the bathroom. Tyler sighs and leans against the bathroom's counter, then he walks out of the bathroom.

While walking back to the lobby, he hears a heart monitor flat line. He turns around to see that same family standing outside of a hospital room. Tyler turns around and walks that way. As he gets closer, he hears a doctor:

"I'm calling it…"

When the doctor said that, the mother screamed out, falling into her family's arms. Tyler listened and focused more:

"Angelica Spivey, one thirty pm."

Tyler turned back around to the lobby.

He sees Greg cleaning up the rest of his puke. Tyler chuckles.

"You didn't have to do that," Tyler says as he sits next to Greg. Greg scoffs, looking up.

"I know that!" Greg replies. "But… who else was going to do it?" Greg looks around at the few other people in the lobby. They all looked preoccupied. Or like they didn't want to be bothered.

"A nurse? Someone whose job is to do it!" Tyler replies. Greg walks over to the trash can and throws his dirt paper towels away. Tyler pulls his phone out again. No Elena.

"My wife and daughter, Livia, are coming up here," Greg tells Tyler as he sits down.

"Why?" Tyler says, thinking it's a bad idea. "Look, I know I'm taking full blame, but someone is going to try and hold you responsible. Why bring your family into this?"

"Even if I didn't want her to, she'd come anyway. She just loves me that much." Greg talks as if he's just been taken to some world where happiness isn't a task too hard to find or a goal too unattainable. As if he can vouch for its realness and tangibility.

In walks Greg's wife and his daughter, Livia, who looked around three years old. Greg stands up to hug his wife, then he looks at Tyler.

"Tyler, this is Reyna, my wife," Greg introduces them to each other. Tyler greets and shakes her hand. Greg picks his little girl up, telling her to wave at Tyler. "And this is Livia."

Livia gives Tyler a cold stare, a sudden reminder of why Tyler isn't too keen on children. He smiles at the girl then looks away, down the hall at the family whose bond has just been broken. Tyler sucks in his jaws when he sees the dead girl being wheeled out on a gurney. He's seen it happen before, plenty of times. But there was something about this moment; its riveting undertones. It stuck to him.

"So, Greg told me what happened," Reyna says to Tyler, sitting down next to Greg. Tyler hears her and turns around, facing her.

"What?" He says. Livia taps on her mother's knees, and Reyna picks her up. She sits the little girl on her lap.

"Did y'all really hit an old lady?" Reyna asks.

"Yeah, but it was my fault," Tyler starts to tell her, "I wasn't paying attention and knocked her into the street."

Tyler sees Reyna's blue eyes widen and her mouth open in shock. She looks at Greg who puts his head down in shame.

"I was late to work, so I was rushing and I didn't see her," Greg explains. He shakes his head and Tyler can see it on his face: he feels guilty. As much as Tyler tried to, he couldn't help Greg escape his guilt. He knows well about that concept, and the feeling. Guilt can get personal. Guilt can entrap. Whether it's him or Greg or Elena… Elena. He thinks of her as he thinks of the word.

"I told him I'd take full blame," Tyler tells Reyna. She smiles and puts her hand on Tyler's.

"That's real selfless of you," Reyna replies. Then she looks at Greg and consoles him, seeing he's feeling down about the situation.

Tyler is still thinking of Elena. And not if she's called because she should know his situation, but he wants to know hers. The issue of guilt gave rise to his wonderment of Elena and if she's doing okay. He doesn't know how, but Elena places blame on herself for the death of her beloved. She puts herself in a position of guilt that came in a package of grief and sadness.

Tyler stands up and walks out of the lobby. He turns down the hall until someone calls for him.

"Hey!" Tyler turns around to see a dark-skinned girl waving at him. He looks back to see if it was him or someone else, because the girl is strikingly beautiful. What would she want with Tyler? And it's anything he's thinking of, it's the last thing on his mind. He just wants some air.

"You call me?" Tyler asks, pointing to himself. The girl, in a shirt and sweat pants with a long, dark, and shiny ponytail, walks closer to him. He sees her hazel eyes and is immediately pulled in.

"You the one that pushed my grandmother into street?" The girl's tone was serious. She glared at Tyler and those previous thoughts he had before disappeared from his head. Now, he's just scared. He looks away, his jaw tightening. The girl notices and smiles.

"I'm just joking. But you're the guy, right?" The girl asks, a lighter tone in her voice. Tyler sighs in relief, still a bit nervous. It takes him awhile to get the next few words out of his mouth.

"Uh, yeah. But it was an accident. I wasn't paying attention," Tyler babbles on. The girl puts her hand over his mouth and steps closer to him. She tilts her head, staring into his eyes.

"It's okay. My grandma is fine," The girl tells him. Tyler steps back, holding his heart. His face had a big smile covering it.

"Oh my god… thank god." Tyler says.

"I'm Vanity. Vanity Laney," Vanity tells Tyler. He holds his hand out and she shakes it.

"I'm Tyler. It's nice to meet you," Tyler says, smiling. He lets go of the girl's hand, feeling nervous, but its different kind of nerves. The kind that makes a person do things they wouldn't normally do, but for that one person they will.

"Thanks for bringing here," Vanity says as she looks around the hospital and outside the window. "Exit 37A isn't very community-like."

"Yeah, I bet." Tyler replies and looks out the window to. That's when he sees Elena, walking into the hospital. He's happy, initially, then he thinks of Greg and how he looks just like Damon. He runs to the elevator. Vanity furrows her brow.

"Is everything okay?" Vanity asks. Tyler ignores her, slamming his fingers onto the down arrow on the elevator. He watches in anticipation for the elevator to reach his floor. "Tyler?"

"I'll be right back! Just… stay here!" The elevator opens and Tyler rushes into it. As it closes, he tries to imagine Elena's reaction to Greg. She doesn't think she could take it. She might even mistake Greg for Damon and who knows what toll that will take on her.

The elevator door opens and he runs into the downstairs lobby, but he doesn't see her. He walks back into the elevator, going back to his floor. He runs out and to the lobby. He only saw Reyna and Livia. Greg was gone.

Elena walks out of a hospital room with a blood bag in her hand, but then she runs into someone. She looks up.

"I'm so sorr—" Elena begins to say, until she sees Greg. Her impatient face shifts into a desolate despondency, the opposite of vacant, and the epitome of ruptured emotion. Her breath begins to shutter and break as she looks into Greg's eyes.

Greg shakes his head, thinking he's done something wrong. "Are you okay?" He asks her.

"Why do you look like him?!" Elena begs.


	4. Chapter 4

Elena's mouth is wide open. She's in shock at the face before her. She starts shaking her head, a sudden rush of tears forming in her ears. Greg opens his mouth to say something, but doesn't know what to say.

"Are you okay?" Greg asks. Elena doesn't answer. She just continues to stare at Greg, her mind elsewhere.

She imagines a similar time when she was human, walking into the kitchen of her home as her Aunt Jenna cuts some peppers on the counter.

"Jenna… I—"Elena begins to speak. Jenna sits the knife down, giving Elena all the attention she needs.

"What's up?" Jenna says. Elena's mouth opens, and she raises a finger.

"I know it's only been two months, but Jeremy…" Elena licks her lips, taking a deep breath. "He needs to get out of the house. Something."

"I tried, remember," Jenna replies, picking the knife back up. "We got into an argument."

"He can't stay like this though. Our parents dead…" Aunt Jenna sits the knife down, looking up Elena. She was shocked. That was the first time Elena said that since her parents died. Jenna picks the knife back up and continues what she is doing.

"I just… I'm going to get him out of the house." Elena says.

"Well, good luck," Jenna says, unenthusiastically. Elena marches up the stairs and walks to Jeremy's door. She attempts to open it but it's locked. She knocks on the door. He doesn't answer. She bangs this time and he opens the door, annoyed.

"What?" Jeremy says to her, his head phones still on. She takes them off and he sighs, frustrated.

"You want to go to the mall?" Elena asks.

"No."

"Too bad!" Elena grabs Jeremy by the shirt and pulls him out of his room. He snatches away.

"I don't want to go!"

Elena looks in his room, smelling something awful. "Jeremy when was the last time you showered?"

He flares his nostrils turning away from her. "Are you done bothering me?"

Elena sighs and shuts his door. She folds her arms and narrows her eyes at him.

"Just this one time. I will not bother you again."

"That's a lie."

"Jeremy. Please?" Jeremy looks back at Elena, his face saddening. He really doesn't want to go. He looks down at the floor, tightening his lips.

"Okay." Elena smiles, hugging him. He pushes her off. "But, just this once!"

Elena walks downstairs and Jeremy, trying to fight the urge to smile, shakes his head.

Back in present day, Elena's eyes fall from Greg's flummoxed gaze. She takes a few steps back and Greg tilts his head at her.

"You need help," Greg says to her. She sits in one of the chairs against the wall.

Greg sighs, his jaw tightening. His foot taps against the ground as he looks around. No one else is in sight. He quickly walks to Elena and sits next to her.

"Did you hear what I said? You need help. So, stay here while I get some assistance." Greg's eyes wander the hospital hallways. "We are after all in a hospital."

Greg stands up and feels a hand clasp around his wrist. Elena pulls him back down and he is surprised at how strong she is.

"You're strong for such a small physique," Greg says, glaring at her. She looks back, blinking.

"Will you stay with me?" Elena asks as her mind descends back into that similar moment…

Jeremy sits outside of a dressing room with his headphones on. He's just staring at the tan, wooden floor when he feels a finger tap on his shoulder. He looks up and sees Elena showing off an outfit. He removes his headphones.

"So? How does it look?" She asks him. He shrugs. "Come on, Jer. Seriously."

"I don't know what to say without sounding like… your gay best friend," He says, chuckling.

"Real funny, Jeremy," Elena replies back to him. She rolls her eyes and walks back into the dressing room. She looks at herself in the mirror, wearing a black dress. The dress is strapless and is snug on her body until it is below her knees. She smiles. This was one of the dresser her mom had picked for her to wear at the annual Miss Mystic Falls.

Elena walks out of the dressing room. She walks pass Jeremy, who is lost in his music, and into the clothing area. She hangs the dress back up onto the rack, wishing she could purchase it.

She looks to her left and furrows her brow. She sees a lady, a brunette, who looks uncannily familiar. Elena's mouth opens in shock and her eyes fill with tears. She lets out a weak, passionate voice from her mouth:

"Mom?"

The lady walks towards the exit of the store, and Elena hustles to get to her. She says it again. She calls the lady Mom, unconsciously. Elena hears Jeremy call her from behind her, she looks back at him, but keeps running towards the lady. She reaches the lady before she exits, touching her shoulder and turning her around.

"Mom?" The lady turns around, startled. She shakes her head and hurries out of the store. "But you…" Elena sighs, looking around and hoping no one saw that. She's already embarrassed she did that. She licks her lips.

"What the hell was that?" Jeremy asks.

"Uh, nothing," Elena replies, sniffling. "You know," Elena begins to speak to Jeremy as she watches the lady walk away, "You can think about them sometimes Jer, there's nothing wrong with that. You just have to try not to let it consume your life. I mean, it's death—"

"Elena—" Jeremy cuts her off. He doesn't want to hear her, because it hurts too much. And coming to terms with it, pains him even more. It pains Elena also, but she's mature enough to know she needs to come to terms with it. She thought she was all well, but, if the events just happened is an indication of anything— it's that she hasn't even fundamentally began to move on.

"It's death, Jer!" Elena cuts him off. "It's life. It's inevitable… and it doesn't matter who you are. You can't escape it… We just have to find a way through it. Together."

Elena grabs ahold of Jeremy's hand, but he pulls away.

Elena opens her eyes to see Greg's piercing gaze.

"This isn't a coincidence…" Elena raises her hand up to his face. Greg's eyes avert to her hand, slowly closing in on his cheek. He slaps her hand away.

"I'm going to get you help!" Greg says, looking behind him. Elena grabs his chin and turns his face back to hers.

"Damon… you're all the help I need!" She says to him, fiendishly. Before he could get another word in, she takes him with her, disappearing from the hall. All that was left, was the echoed voice of Greg's.


End file.
